Up to 1000 litres of diesel stolen from yard tanker

Thieves left a fuel trail in their wake during a heist of up to 1000 litres of diesel from a company yard in Masterton at the weekend.
Tararua Resource Recovery manager Peter Forman discovered the theft yesterday morning, which left a 1200 litre company store tanker bone dry after it was filled on Friday afternoon.
Mr Forman believes the weekend theft, which is the first at the yard apart from petty pilfering directly from company vehicles, is a reaction to soaring fuel costs that is not confined to his business site alone.
"Apparently 600 litres of diesel was taken from a rural property in South Wairarapa as well.
"We were expecting something like this here to tell the truth. Just not so soon after the price rises."
Mr Forman said the thieves had bypassed a padlock on the stationary company tanker and carried the fuel in containers over several hundred metres to a northwest boundary of the property. "You can see a trail of spillage to a paddock bordering the complex. Our security here is poor, there's no boundary fence on that side of the yard. But it's never been a problem before."
Mr Forman is yet to establish how much fuel was taken from the tanker, which supplies diesel to four trucks and two heavy machines at the site, and is canvassing company drivers who may have broken with routine and filled their tanks over the weekend.
"We definitely lost fuel, just how much is still in question.
"It's at least in the hundreds and could be up to 1000 litres because the tanker was empty this morning."
He said the theft would be reported to police once a total amount of lost fuel is known and that the company would likely not seek to recover the loss through insurance although this is also yet to be established.
The company remained operational yesterday, he said, and more fuel is set to arrive at the site today along with a tanker security consultant from supplier Rural Fuel.
The fuel theft comes after a haul of 80 litres was lost to thieves from two separate Wairarapa rural properties last week.
Masterton police Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said 40 litres of diesel was taken from a tank on a rural property on the Masterton-Martinborough Road some time in the week preceding Wednesday and overnight on Tuesday another 40 litres of petrol was taken from a shed along with two chainsaws.
He issued a warning to residents and businesses to ensure stores of fuel have adequate protection against theft.
Rural Fuel general manager Trent Smith said he was aware of the fuel theft from Tararua Resource Recovery although there had been no other similar heists of rural fuel supplies reported in Wairarapa.
He said the company is available to advise rural property-owners and businesses about security for their stored fuel.